The previous biggest single-day spike in the state was recorded on Tuesday with 149 new cases. Out of 216 new cases, 187 are returnees from Maharashtra.

Bengaluru: Karnataka recorded its biggest single day spike on Saturday with over 200 new cases of COVID-19, along with a death, taking the total number of infections to 1,959 and the death toll to 42, the health department said.

The state reported 216 fresh infections of coronavirus, of which 187 were returnees from neighboring Maharashtra.

The previous biggest single-day spike was recorded on Tuesday with 149 new cases, when the state had breached the century mark in terms of number of positive cases per day for the first time.

As of May 23 evening, cumulatively 1,959 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, which includes 42 deaths and 608 discharges, the department said in its bulletin.

It said that out of 1,307 active cases, 1,294 patients are in isolation at designated hospitals and are stable, while 13 are in Intensive Care Units.

Eleven patients who recovered were discharged on Saturday.

A 32-year-old man from Bengaluru Urban became the 42nd COVID-19 related fatality in the state.

He was admitted to a designated hospital on May 19 with complaints of breathing difficulty and comorbid conditions, the bulletin said, adding that he died today due to cardiac arrest.

Another patient died in Dakshina Kannada due to non-COVID reasons (cause of which is yet to be revealed), taking the number of such deaths to two.

Earlier one COVID-19 patient had committed suicide by jumping from a hospital building in Bengaluru.

While 187 out of the 216 newly reported cases are returnees from Maharashtra, returnees from other states who tested positive include- two each from Gujarat, Delhi, and Tamil Nadu, and one each from Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan.

The remaining cases include 15 who are contacts of patients who already tested positive, three with a history of Influenza like illness (ILI) and one with a history of SARI.

Two patients’ contacts history is still being traced, the bulletin said.

Among the districts where the new cases were reported, Yadgir accounted for 72, followed by Raichur 40, Mandya 28, Chikkaballapura-26, Gadag-15, Dharwad-5.

Also, there were four cases each from Bengaluru urban and Hassan, three each from Kolar, Ballari, Udupi, Bidar, Davangere and Dakshina Kannada, two from Uttara Kannada, and one each from Kalaburagi and Belagavi.

Bengaluru urban district still tops the list of positive cases, with a total of 265 infections, followed by Mandya 237 and Kalaburagi 135.

Among discharges too Bengaluru urban tops the list with total 130, followed by Mysuru 88 and Belagavi 65.

A total of 1,96,196 samples have been tested so far, out of which 9,670 were tested on Saturday alone.

So far 1,92,127 samples have reported as negative, and out of them 9,039 reported negative on Saturday.